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Dual PowerMac 1.8 vs 2.0
- Thread starter Mac2004
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I am of the ilk that the dual 1.8 is the better buy, because who is going to use the PCI-X anyway...seems like the industry is going with PCI-Express...2.5 is sweet, but way too much cash - save and pump up memory and HD and maybe you can afford some software as well...
One has to ask, what was really ever wrong with the first generation models? What changes have been made to rev.B that makes it the best choice? It seems to me that if you wait a little while and see how all this shakes out.. you might be able to save a couple hundred and get a dual 2GHz revA.
Or am I wrong?
Or am I wrong?
I was waiting..
How fast it would be until the first post with this question... get the one your money can afford... and be happy... I love my eMac 1GHz and waiting for a nice iMac G5 but rev. B, my pocket is tight right now...
Now let's see the threads "Buy now or wait?"
I love this site!
How fast it would be until the first post with this question... get the one your money can afford... and be happy... I love my eMac 1GHz and waiting for a nice iMac G5 but rev. B, my pocket is tight right now...
Now let's see the threads "Buy now or wait?"
I love this site!
jxyama said:
Amen... I'm been waiting for these new ones, not because I want one, but because I want an old powermac. I'd love to pick up an old dual MD 1.42GHz 2mb of cache g4 machine.. and with these new machines, those suckers just keep going lower.
I can't wait to see what the revA powermacs will be going for... MacMall actually has the old g5 dual 1.8 costing $200 more than the new dual 1.8. You just gotta sit back with your credit card in hand and watch the selection thin out quickly.
Compare these setups (from the apple store)
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 internal modem
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Subtotal $2,474.00
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 internal modem
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Subtotal $2,499.00
the only other difference is that th 2.0 has PCI-X (vs PCI) and is expandable to 8GB of ram (vs 4GB).
The 2.0 is ~10% faster, but my guess is that in the above config, the 1.8 would perform better and is the better deal
Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 internal modem
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Subtotal $2,474.00
Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
160GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 internal modem
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Subtotal $2,499.00
the only other difference is that th 2.0 has PCI-X (vs PCI) and is expandable to 8GB of ram (vs 4GB).
The 2.0 is ~10% faster, but my guess is that in the above config, the 1.8 would perform better and is the better deal
cr2sh said:One has to ask, what was really ever wrong with the first generation models? What changes have been made to rev.B that makes it the best choice? It seems to me that if you wait a little while and see how all this shakes out.. you might be able to save a couple hundred and get a dual 2GHz revA.
Or am I wrong?
That's actually not a bad idea. Better to have a top of the line machine than the middle--that's my philosophy. I'm using one of those now. There were a lot of things to figure out with the first G5 models and there may be some improvements made to the hardware in revision B that make them more stable. However, for what most people want, either is good.
bousozoku said:
You know.. we heard a little aboit problems with the original powermac. Every once and a while you'd see post claiming the the g5 was always crashing or was unstable.. but was it really? You see that type of post with most hardware and like all Apple hardware, it would have never shipped it it weren't up to par. I had slight reservation, 1st gen 64bit and all, there's a lot to go wrong and from the sound of your post (the phrase more stable kinda makes me nervous) there were a few problem with revA.
From the sidelines though, I'm just not seeing what a B will get you that an A doesn't at a few hundered less. Its the same motherboard, the same bus... why pay more? Anyways, sorry for post jacking the thread.
*Note, the obvious exception to my logic being the dual 2.5. Never underestimate the importance of the coolness factor.. and water cooled, is ****ing cool.
bousozoku said:
i would agree on that, except for the extra bag of those little green pieces of paper...
Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
8GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 8x1GB
2x250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
ATI Radeon 9800 XT w/256MB DDR SDRAM
AirPort Extreme Card
Bluetooth Module
56k V.92 modem
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet Card
Bluetooth Module + Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
iSight
Logitech Z-680 THX 5.1 Speakers & Monster 2-meter Cable
Subtotal $9,214.95
*big gulp* That is insane, and you haven't even included the price of a couple of 23" HD's to do that baby justice!Don't panic said:Subtotal $9,214.95
ziwi said:
PCI-X replaces PCI... PCI-Express replaces AGP. They have nothing to do with each other.
get a dual 1.8Ghz Rev A like mine, they're priced in between the new 1.8 and the 2Ghz now, you get 160GB HDD instead of 80, 8GB max ram PCI-X
...
and mine has allso 8x SuperDrive (mistake by apple?? I have it for 2 months now :-D)
allso I think the 'new' dual 2Ghz is actually the 'old' one, but with the new heatsink and the -so it seems- all new 8x SuperDrive
...
and mine has allso 8x SuperDrive (mistake by apple?? I have it for 2 months now :-D)
allso I think the 'new' dual 2Ghz is actually the 'old' one, but with the new heatsink and the -so it seems
- all new 8x SuperDrive bousozoku said:
I say never buy top of the line unless you really really need it (ie. your bottom line would be improved by faster rendering times). It locks you in to an architecture, from a cash flow standpoint. The performance increases you see will be marginal from the middle of the line system.
On top of that many processes cannot not be parallelized (not sure if that is a word) and will not be able to take advantage of more than one processor, it is just a simple fact of computer science. Although, the dual processesors are better for multitasking.
The difference is around $500 for a 200Mhz boost for most apps. I would say right now the dual 1.8 is the best deal as it was the middle of the road a couple days ago. So unless you have a need for PCI-X or over 8 GB of ram (which you might as I don't know what you plan to use it for) I would say go for the 1.8s. Personally, I would stay away from the 2.5 as the liquid cool system seem like a bit of a hack (adds complexity to the machine, more to go wrong, first iteration, etc) to quell the CPU hungry professionals until IBM can get their process down and start reliably produce 3+ Ghz chips.
That being said, I don't know if would feel the same way in 6-8 months, this is if I were to purchase a machine today.
Travl said:
Hrmm.. Maybe, Apple's newest docs on the G5 says its 90nm, but also says that its die size is 66mm but other specs say that the 970FX is 60mm. Going out on a limb here, but I would venture to say that the 2.5 is a 970 processed at 90nm, because Apple's docs also say that its maximum FSB is 1.25 GHz. The 3GHz+ chips would need for the FSB to be 1.5GHz or for IBM to add a higher multiplier to the CPU. But apple hasn't always been the most honest in there docs before, ibook's maxium memory being 640MB (but only because 1GB modules weren't available). Maybe I am misreading the docs and they are saying the maximum FSB is 1.25 because that is all available.
Is there a way to purchase the processor itself and build up from there? Why doesn't IBM sell single 2.5 GHz processors to consumers other than Apple?
People would buy tons of those--maybe someone would find the courage to (waste several thousand dollars and) incorporate it into a PowerBook...
I bet you could find a way to put in an eMac also.
People would buy tons of those--maybe someone would find the courage to (waste several thousand dollars and) incorporate it into a PowerBook...
I bet you could find a way to put in an eMac also.
wide said:
Short answer: no.
Longer answer: You can buy the logic boards for g4's on ebay and other places as well as upgrade cards for the CPU's. But you would need a new motherboard to even try to put it into a PB. Even if you modded the exisiting g5 logicboard to fit into a PB you would would still would need to find a way to modify it so it could run off a battery, find a way to dissipate the heat, etc. eMac might be easier but still pretty darn hard. You will have to trust that Apple and IBM want to but a G5 in a PowerBook as soon as they can, but it isn't as all that easy.